Created by the same manager behind the all-but-inaccessible nightclub Le Baron, this hotel’s restaurant, bar, and lush terrace serve as the Paris headquarters for many of the hottest names on the fashion and art scenes.

With their belts cinched depressingly below their stomachs, sagging jacket linings, and gaping pants pockets, the functionaries and low-level businessmen in whom this district seems to specialize are not lovely to look at, but they do know their food, and they recognize value.